I went to bed last night slightly dissatisfied with Kerry's answer on stem cell research. The questioner was, I believe, pretty clearly pro-life, but I thought it was a fair question - if we are already having success with non-embryonic stem cell research, why open up the moral and ethical can of worms of using embryos for stem cell research?
I thought it might be effective to approach embryonic stem cell research in the following way: compare it to organ donation. Right now, those embryos are either going to stay frozen until they are useless or be destroyed anyway. If we use the embryos for stem cell research and find ways to cure tragic diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, or to help someone with a damaged spinal cord walk again, it's like letting these embryos, embryos that would otherwise just be destroyed anyway, make life livable again for someone who is currently suffering. It's similar to those people whose families see their loved one live on through organ donation. I know if I were going to a fertility clinic and created more embryos than I could use, I would be happy to sign a card asking that the embryos created from my egg and my husband's sperm be used to advance science and help a suffering person be healed from their disease or affliction.
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